Spocko's Brain

I got into a conversation with some friend’s about the Dem’s failure to prepare for the nomination hearings. I KNEW that there were multiple weaknesses in them, but I also know that the Trump team had a strategy to push them through.

 I saw lots of complaints about Dem Senator questions at the hearings. It is hard, especially when Team Trump uses these tactics 

1) Withholding evidence 

2) No background checks by FBI AND the FBI doesn’t share the info with all committee members

3) Coach candidates to give non-answers and to give technically correct, but misleading answers

“It wasn’t an NDA, It was a”non- disparagement clause in the divorce proceedings”

4) Threaten people who have legit questions about their qualifications, or have issues about their character. See what they did to Sen. Joni Ernst.

I started looking into Tulsi Gabbard. Howie Klein wrote about her at Down With Tyranny. Will Senate Republicans Draw The Line At Tulsi Gabbard? Very Very Unlikely Subhead: Does Trump’s Crazy Hare Krishna Belong To Putin?

I learned a lot. There are multiple weakness that could be exploited if someone was in charge of a PR campaign to derail her nomination. I don’t know if anyone is, but I do know the people in charge of pushing nominees are ON THE JOB! They are busy, pre-emptively shutting down lines of attack on Tulsi.

In Howie’s piece he points to an Atlantic article, “Elaine Godfrey managed to do what few reporters have managed to do— a journey to the heart of Gabbardism. She started at just the right place too: the Chris Butler Hare Krishna cult Tulsi built her life around.”

That leader is Chris Butler, the founder of an offshoot of the Hare Krishna movement in Hinduism, called the Science of Identity Foundation. Butler’s followers know him as Jagad Guru Siddhaswarupananda Paramahamsa, and Gabbard, who identifies as Hindu, has called him her “guru-dev,” or spiritual master.

What Everyone Gets Wrong About Tulsi Gabbard
Other than raw ambition, only one through line is perceptible in a switchbacking political career
The Atlantic, January 21, 2025

Howie talks about meeting her:

When I first came across Tulsi Gabbard, she was two things to me: a right-wing Hare Krishna and a fanatic intent on persecuting the LGBTQ community in Hawaii. From the very beginning I saw her as, first and foremost, an enemy— and then as a brainwashed cultist moron.

Long before her sudden transformation into a Berniecrat— so still a right-wing, faux-Dem— she called me to ask for a Blue America endorsement. She didn’t really try to paint herself as a progressive and she came across as a garden variety careerist Democrat, not especially bad and not especially good. At the end of the interview, I asked her about the process by which she had come to change her position on LGBT equality. She immediately said she’d call back and then hung up abruptly and… never called back.

Howie Klein

Now, it might be interesting if some Dem senators ask her ask questions about her involvement with her Guru Butler. But if they did she is prepared to take umbrage at it. Hegseth pre-emptively dismissed any concerns about his Christian Nationalism and nobody dug into it because it would require educating the public about its dangers.

The group in question, The Science of Identity Foundation, got ahead of any questions and put a the press release attacking the Media for how they are covered. They also got multiple groups to sign a letter to basically say, “Any attack on Butler & his group is an attack on all Hindus.” 

So, if any media WANTS to talk about the group & her connection to them will need experts or groups not on that list who can say, “Look, don’t lump all Hindus together. This is what Butler has said on homosexuality, gay marriage, transgender, and abortions. This is what these 3 main Hindu groups have said on these topics,  But Tulsi is her own person, ask her what her views are right now about these topics. What will come out is that she has” Evolved” then Devolved.”

Now, in my attempt to find those experts I got this excellent comment, her Hinduism isn’t the issue here; it’s her hate campaign against gay and trans people.

That should be the focus, but it won’t come up during her hearings because it won’t be deemed relevant. But it is, because her position of power would give her the ability to persecute and gather information on groups here in the U.S. who she hates, for whatever reason. 

Jim Stewardson and my friends at Mind War suggested that I look up what Tulsi Gabbard had to say on Rumble (funded by Peter Thiel) where she got big bucks for a few videos. I’m sure the Dems can ask her about how much she got when they get her TAX returns (if the FBI will provide it to them.) And seeing that Plantir is one of the big vendors to the intelligence community, it wouldn’t be like a conflict of interest or anything… especially in the Trump admin.

Marcy Wheeler @emptywheel.bsky.social made a great point about the strategy behind Sen Kaine’s questions to Hegseth on the Nicole Sandler show last week.

Rather than saying, “Did you rape that woman?” he said “Did you cheat on your wife?” The more important question is, “Why didn’t you tell Donald Trump?”

This is, in my opinion, how Democrats should be approaching these hearings,
How can I describe the danger you pose to Donald Trump? How can I describe the danger you pose to the Republican project of, for example, really taking on China?

Marcy Wheeler on the Nicole Sandler show 1-17-2025

My point is It SHOULD be the job of the Dems who are going to talk to the media before, during and after these confirmation hearings to find weaknesses in these nominees that can be used to protect the American people. I’m doing the best I can to help in advance. I’ve found a lot of damming videos of her on Rumble but the ones that won’t show up in the Senate hearings will be her anti-trans views because that’s been normalized on the right. What MIGHT show up are ways that her flip flopping views might come back to hurt Trump, Trump cabinet members, rich gay donors, or Republican money making projects.

https://mastodon.online/@spocko/113846859823372272

Today Cliff Schecter and Hal Sparks talked about Kash Patel & how he could be the first possible leather daddy to head the FBI.

The Steve Bannon plan is to overwhelm the media with Trump’s horrible nominees. What gets to the MSM, that makes them disqualified, isn’t the same as what makes it to late night comedy shows, or to Fox News, or RW social media.

Part of what we can do with our audiences is to show how weird these people are. There are serious reasons these people are horrible, that would disqualify them to normal people like us. But we need to also point out stuff that the MAGAs have a hard time with, but we can’t reach their channels. If we tried they’d say, “I thought you were COOL WITH DEI, gays, and leather daddies!” So we put stuff out saying, “We’re cool them being gay or leather daddies, but we are not cool with their policies to destroy our national security, are you?”

Frankly I don’t know which weird, corrupt, sick, incompetent or illegal activity of Trump’s nominees will knock them out of the process. But we need to find them and . . . → Read More: Trump’s Leather Daddy To Head FBI

“When we fight, we win!” – Kamala Harris.

What do we do when we fight & lose? Never Give Up! Never surrender!

People admire that about a leader and a cause. We don’t just fight the fights we can win. You fight the fights that need fighting!” Martin Sheen, The American President (1995)

We expect THEM to follow the norms of losing. Like we do. Accept the loss. Don’t flip the board over.

And when we WIN? We are supposed to accept the win. Stop fighting. Reach out to the losing side & shake hands. Follow the norms of winners. Say, “Good luck! It’s great to have a strong opponent!”

Don’t be a sore winner! Don’t spike the football. Don’t mock them for losing. Don’t brag about the win everywhere. “Don’t get cocky kid!”

I’m getting into too many sports and movie metaphors here, so I want to talk about a specific win and why when we fight & win against RWers we must keep fighting, because the norms of winning aren’t enough against today’s RW.

Ruby Freeman & Shaye Moss won a $148 million judgement against Giuliani after he defamed them

Rudy delayed turning . . . → Read More: Rules for fighting RWers–this century

Now that it’s clear that Elon is “Dark Gothic MAGA” he’s using multiple methods to help Trump return to power. Here’s one I spotted the other day, from Doge Designer (a suspected Musk sock puppet account).

He says Elon Musk’s PAC launched an X Community focused on “exposing voter fraud and election interference” and it asks people to post videos or information about “election interference” or “anything compromising election integrity” in the X Community.

What’s this really about? It’s a place to dump false and unverified stories that can be used to create the appearance of widespread voter fraud. It will be used right after the election to demand that the votes not be certified until the “fraud” is investigated. It’s also about “flooding the zone with sh*t” in social media so that the media, who are all still on Twitter/X, will have to address all the “fraud” that is posted. Especially since the Musk X algorithm will be amplifying them.

I went to X’s “Election Integrity Community” and found a handful of posts. Three were looking to dox someone who delivered ballots. MAGAts are going after a postal worker for doing his job. Just like they . . . → Read More: Musk’s PAC Used To Dox Election Workers, Spread Lies

Did you know it’s illegal to knowingly broadcast false information about a catastrophe, especially if such communications may cause substantial “public harm?”

Public harm includes direct & actual damages to people or property & the diversion of law enforcement or public health & safety authorities from their duties.

Link to FCC rules on FALSE INFORMATION/BROADCAST HOAXES https://www.fcc.gov/reports-research/guides/hoaxes

But Elon Musk & X are not regulated by the FCC. So, HOW DO WE STOP THIS?

Make it illegal, just like we did for broadcast TV and radio.

I know that the internet is not subject to the same laws as broadcast radio & TV. But we can create them.

We can use the same criteria that the FCC uses, which will protect people who spread the false information unintentionally. But to just ignore it is to abdicate the need to protect people during this vulnerable time.

Dash, on Mastodon pointed out some of the reasons why Musk is getting away with this. He also understood that it’s a call for a change

@CatDragon @spocko because the internet isn’t subject to the same laws as broadcast tv (so he isn’t breaking the law). And republicans won’t agree . . . → Read More: We can make it illegal-on social media-to knowingly post false information about a catastrophe